L.A. County Supervisors expected to end controversial deportation action in the jails

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This 2011 file photo shows the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department’s Men’s Central Jail. On Tuesday, May 12, 2015, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors are expected to vote to end an agreement with the federal government that allows Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents inside the county’s jails to determine if inmates can be deported. (Photo by Hans Gutknecht/Los Angeles Daily News/File)

The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors is expected to vote Tuesday to end an agreement with the federal government that allows Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents inside the county’s jails to determine if inmates can be deported.

Ending the controversial 287(g) program would remove ICE agents from inside the inmate reception center at Twin Towers Correctional Facility and take steps to ensure only the undocumented inmates who pose a serious threat to public safety would be deported.

The program’s opponents say community members were racially profiled and undocumented immigrants were targeted for deportation who were not convicted of serious crimes and in some cases separated parents from their U.S.-born children.

Those who support the program say it prevents dangerous criminals who are in the country illegally from being released into the community and reoffending.

Supervisors Hilda L. Solis and Mark Ridley-Thomas will introduce a motion requesting the board end its decadelong participation in the program.

In the motion, Solis and Ridley-Thomas point out the program allows sheriff’s deputies to act as ICE agents, which blurs the lines between local law enforcement and ICE.

“Discontinuing the 287(g) program will protect the county from future liability, will free up much needed county resources, and will improve the trust between local law enforcement and the community,” the supervisors said.

“Victims or witnesses are less willing to come forward when they fear that any contact with law enforcement could lead to deportation,” Solis said in a statement. “The 287(g) program has hindered rather than helped our community’s safety. It’s time we terminate this agreement and start rebuilding that trust.”

The board renewed the program for two years in October, before Solis and Supervisor Sheila Kuehl joined the board. Ridley-Thomas had abstained from voting on the renewal. In 2010, the board, including Ridley-Thomas, had unanimously supported the program’s renewal. During their campaigns last year, Solis and Kuehl spoke out against the program.

In October and in the past Supervisors Michael D. Antonovich and Don Knabe supported continuation of the program.

Antonovich’s spokesman, Tony Bell, said the supervisor continues to support the 287(g) program “as a strong public safety measure.”

The motion that will be considered Tuesday allows the Sheriff’s Department to continue to participate in the Priority Enforcement Program, the replacement program of the highly criticized Secure Communities Program, which shared digital fingerprints of every inmate booked into local jails with federal authorities. In November, President Barack Obama replaced the program with PEP, which restricts ICE’s access to those inmates convicted of “high-priority” crimes such as rape or murder or who pose a threat to national security.

The supervisors’ motion directs the sheriff to work with community groups to develop policies to target only those who pose a threat to public safety.

“I welcome the opportunity to work with local, state and federal leaders as we develop policies and procedures that appropriately balance both promoting public safety and fortifying trust within the multi-ethnic communities that make up Los Angeles County,” Sheriff Jim McDonnell said Monday in a statement.

Kuehl said Monday she will ask that the motion by Solis and Ridley-Thomas be broken into two parts. She said she will vote to end the 287(g) program but does not support the sheriff’s continued cooperation with ICE through the PEP program.

“It’s the underlying philosophy that local law enforcement has a responsibility for immigration enforcement,” Kuehl said. “I have never thought that was the case, and I don’t think there should be any kind of collaboration, even what PEP is proposing.”

She said when residents report a crime, they want the perpetrator to be punished for the crime and not necessarily deported.

While Kuehl says she respects the motion, she can’t support deputies cooperating with ICE before inmates are released.

She said she expects to be the lone vote against cooperation with PEP.

Immigration rights advocates called Monday for the supervisors to discontinue any cooperation with ICE. Several advocates and community members are expected to testify at the Board of Supervisors meeting Tuesday hoping they can persuade the supervisors to sever ties with ICE.

“We know that ICE out of L.A. is possible,” said Edna Monroy, an organizer for the California Immigrant Youth Justice Alliance. “And so, (the elimination of) 287(g) is a very small step. It’s an easy step.”

Jessica Bansal, a staff attorney at National Day Laborer Organizing Network, also called on the supervisors to end the county’s cooperation with deportation programs. Bansal’s organization, with the ACLU, filed a claim against the county on behalf of Diego Rojas, a U.S. citizen, who was detained after he had posted bail because ICE deputies investigated whether he was in the country illegally. Rojas received a $6,000 settlement in March.

“We know that despite the different names these programs all amount to the same thing — using local police to shore up a broken, unjust and out-of-control deportation machine that separates families,” Bansal said.

Sarah Favot is an award-winning Los Angeles-based freelance writer. Most recently she was a data and investigative reporter at L.A. School Report, a non-profit education news website. Prior to that she was a staff writer for the L.A. Daily News covering county government. She is Vice President of the Los Angeles Chapter of The Society of Professional Journalists.